Builder: Boston Navy Yard
Laid Down: October 28, 1935
Launched: October 31, 1936
Commissioned: August 16, 1937
Decommissioned: 8/29/46
Fate: After being used as target
practice in the Bikini atomic
tests, she was retained for
experiments in decontamination.
She was finally sunk off Kwajalein
3/22/48

We are seeking information on the USS Mugford and her crews.
Files and photos may be E-mailed to us and we will incorporate them into these pages.

My Father Richard Lee Cook and about 20 other Marines from
the VMF-211 hitched a ride on the Mugford from Pearl to
Palmyra Island. It was in early 1942. I think the Mugford
was on it's way to the Coral Sea. They got into a storm
and my dad and his fellow Marines were sick as dogs. The
crew of the Mugford got a real kick out of the seasick
Marines.

Rick Cook

7/11/05:

This is Mugford crew member, Frank Duzick Sr. accounting of transporting those Marines
including my dad to Palmyra Island.

"I remember it well. Shortly after the attact, we took a small group of marines,
about 30, to Palmyra Island . The weather was rough, it was a trip I'm sure they have never
forgotten. There were not enough extra bunks in the crew quarters and most of them had to
sleep on deck. All of them were sea sick and the sailors took great pleasure talking about
food when in their presence. Palmyra Island is south of PH and took a couple of days to
get there. It's a flat sand island covered with palm trees and at that time not much else
there."

DD 389 -

- DD 389

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